Father S Day

OAKMONT, Pa.-- --Earl Woods wasn't with his son at Pebble Beach in 2000. By then, Tiger Woods' father already had significantly scaled back his travel schedule. "It's Father's Day, and I can't tell you enough about what my dad meant to my golf," Tiger Woods said on the day he won his first U.S. Open, after posting one of the most impressive performances anyone had ever seen in a major. "I can't thank him enough. ... And to have my dad still alive while I won this championship on Father's Day, it's very important to me."

I AWOKE with childlike excitement last Father's Day, knowing that it was probably the only day my kids would express gratitude without wanting something in return. Somehow this one day makes a year's worth of trials and tribulations seem like a good deal.I felt an inner smile as the radio disc jockey said, "Let's send this out to all the dads this morning." Then he played the late Harry Chapin's "Cats in the Cradle," a song about a father's biggest failure in life: spending so much time wrapped up in his life that he neglects his child.

USUALLY I DON'T think about paying homage to Dad until the Bermuda shorts ads appear in the newspaper reminding all that Father's Day is approaching. But since my dad's death last November, I have at odd times found myself paying tribute to the man, and hearing his words.The other day, for instance, while struggling to repair the refrigerator's ice maker -- an epic conflict that seems to have lasted almost as long as the Civil War -- I heard my dad's advice, "Take it easy, breezy," ring in my ears.

IT IS FATHER'S DAY, again. It is a day that stresses repetition. Innovation is not the theme here; ritual is. The same gifts -- socks or ties or shirts -- will be given to us. That is fine with most of us. We don't want to be surprised. We also look forward to our annual pat on the back, or backside. We also get to enjoy our favorite meal.The meal always lasts longer than other parts of the Father's Day festivities, which is fitting. Most dads don't cotton to prolonged sentimental ceremonies, but we don't mind lingering over extra helpings of strawberry pie.I have said all this before, but it bears repeating.

THE THREE white men in their early 20s accused of demonically dragging a black hitchhiker to death in Texas have been described by acquaintances as "mannerly" and "good boys." They were not evil, say family and friends, who concede the men may have picked up some bad habits in prison.The youths charged with killing classmates and teachers in a schoolyard in Jonesboro, Ark., last spring were subsequently described as "very polite.""He was always so well-mannered. He seemed like such a neat young man," recalled a pastor's wife of the 13-year-old who allegedly stole guns from a friend's grandfather before the shooting spree.

THE DARK SIDE of getting a black eye is that it doesn't do much for your public image. Unlike a milk mustache, which, thanks to a clever advertising campaign, has become a sign of celebrity, a black eye is still regarded as public proof of bad behavior.Sporting a "shiner" makes you an easy target for wisecracks. "So you got mouthy with the wife and she let you have it?" quipped a lifeguard at my neighborhood swimming pool as I floated past him.I had gone to the pool to soak in the cool waters, to escape the rough-and-tumble world, to heal and hide.

ON THIS DAY in 1910 the city of Spokane and the state of Washington (whose name honors the father of our country) officially recognized fathers for the first time.Thirteen months earlier, a woman named Sonora Louise Smart sat in a Spokane church listening to a sermon on behalf of a national Mother's Day celebration.Ms. Smart's father, a Civil War veteran, was a widower who had raised six children.Why, wondered his daughter, should there not be a similar day for fathers? Her father, William Jackson Smart, had been born in June.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all who are fathers.I didn't get to spend Mother's Day with my mom, who was in Hawaii with my father, but I will spend Father's Day with my dad -- something that has always been important to me.I was blessed with a father who loves me. I was the firstborn and an only child for nine years, so we have a special bond. Of course, he probably has that bond with each of his three children.I wasn't spoiled with material items as a child, but I was spoiled with love and my parents' time.

TWO WEEKS AGO, in the Father's Day edition of this newspaper, I offered what I thought was gentle insight about what women want from the fathers of their children.After probing the experiences of marriage counselors, advice columnists, stand-up comics and the women around me, I concluded that fathers who are also husbands should strive to communicate better, to continue to romance the women they once courted so lovingly, and to remain flexible as men's and women's roles continued to change.

This is how medical researcher Paul Creamer enjoyed his status as a father of three yesterday:First he was awakened by his children at their Mount Washington home.He read their homemade Father's Day cards and ate the gift -- potato chips -- they gave to him in bed. He then got up and telephoned his father in the family's native England, where it was also Father's Day.Creamer and his family then headed to the Father's Day Model Airplane Festival at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.Creamer, his wife, Joanna, and their children Katie, 5, Johnnie, 7, and Andrew, 9, were part of a crowd of about 350 people who went to the museum yesterday to make airplanes from paper and plastic foam, assemble model airplanes from kits, watch videotapes about air warfare and hear talks on aviation history.

Eight-year-old Paige Adelsberger couldn't wait to tell her teacher the good news: Her father had just lost his job. Her teacher replied that losing one's job is usually bad news. But not to Paige. The way she saw it, her father would be able to spend more time around the house, even fill in for her mother, Lauren, as Room Mom. Make that Room Dad. This Father's Day, John Adelsberger, a former senior engineer at Constellation Energy, is among scores of laid-off dads who have gone from primary breadwinner to primary housekeeper amid the nation's economic recession.

Don't bother calling to wish me a Happy Father's Day because I won't be here, kids, I've got the day off. I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. But I'm in Minnesota. So I'll just climb in my black Lamborghini and head for the territories and west of Minneapolis pick up a county road that runs straight on flat prairie for a couple hundred miles. I'll raise my radar antenna and let that 270 hp V-12 engine run free and reach the Dakota border in the time it takes to drink a cold one and listen to Waylon and Willie - and don't call me on my cell because I don't have it with me, just Mr. Samuel Colt, a deck of cards, a roll of Benjamins and a dog named Lucky.

Here's the cheery message that greets all fathers as we slog through this wonderful spring of recession and layoffs and swine flu: Dear Dad, take a hike. I say this because of a new and depressing national survey released just in time for Mother's Day. The survey shows adult children would overwhelmingly choose to have Mom move in with them instead of Dad if their elderly parents couldn't take care of themselves. My fellow dads: Is this beautiful or what? In fact, the survey by Towson-based Senior Helpers, a provider of in-home care for the aging, showed that fully 70 percent of adult children would pick Mom over Dad. Yes, when it comes to making the big decision about which parent to take in, the thinking apparently goes like this: Poor old Mom needs a little help.

My advisory class at the Maryland Academy of Technology and Health Sciences, a public charter high school in Baltimore, includes a daily lesson in character building or study skills. Recently, I asked six students participating in the group - all boys - to make a list of five male role models. I decided to participate as well, and quickly came up with a list that included educators, my father and my best friend, an Iraq War veteran. What was an easy task for me, however, proved rather challenging for my students.

Sen. Barack Obama's recent call for responsible fatherhood is welcome, overdue - and misleadingly incomplete. That America's fathers need to embrace their most important role is no secret. Activist fathers have been trying to make the same claim for decades, without much success. Not all fathers are trying to be good dads, it goes without saying. But neither are all absent by choice, as Mr. Obama's message implied. His plea to fathers came on Father's Day, a time we usually reserve for praising good men. Noting the plague of fatherless homes, he called on fathers who have abandoned their responsibilities to act like men, not boys.

A 56-year-old Carney man has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting Sunday of his 38-year-old son, Baltimore County police said yesterday. Harold Zane Williams Sr. was charged in the death of Harold Zane Williams Jr., who was shot at his father's home in the 9700 block of Harford Road, police said. Officers were called to the house about 5 p.m. Sunday after a report of a gunshot and found the younger Williams with a shotgun wound to his abdomen. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where he died of his injuries Sunday night, according to police.

Father's Day has never had the clout of Mother's Day. Dads are lucky to get a card or the proverbial ugly tie. But one group of fathers outdoes Rodney Dangerfield in terms of getting "no respect" - stepfathers. A prominent sociologist recently went so far as to say that a woman with children who remarries is committing child abuse! This Father's Day, let's give stepdads something they can use a lot more than a tie - respect and support. Rather than stigmatizing them, let's explain what we know about what makes for success as a stepdad, and we actually know quite a bit. Why is it acceptable to malign stepfathers?

I see where one of the hot gifts for Father's Day is a GPS navigation device because, well, you know how Dad is when it comes to directions. The big guy is kind of clueless, right? He gets behind the wheel and he just sort of drives and drives with this vacant look, listening to the wind rush through his ears. And he's always getting lost. Because in addition to being clueless, he's stubborn and won't ask anyone for help. Nope, he'll just keep driving and driving no matter how lost he gets until he drives smack into the ocean.

OAKMONT, Pa.-- --Earl Woods wasn't with his son at Pebble Beach in 2000. By then, Tiger Woods' father already had significantly scaled back his travel schedule. "It's Father's Day, and I can't tell you enough about what my dad meant to my golf," Tiger Woods said on the day he won his first U.S. Open, after posting one of the most impressive performances anyone had ever seen in a major. "I can't thank him enough. ... And to have my dad still alive while I won this championship on Father's Day, it's very important to me."

Just as Robert Campbell finished counting to 10, his daughter, Jaden, stuffed Cuddlies - her favorite teddy bear - under a pillow. Then Robert picked up a stuffed dog named Casper and began to search for Jaden's furry friend. "Am I getting hot?" Campbell asked a stuffed Eeyore sitting on the couch, in a high-pitched voice. "I haven't seen Cuddlies in two years," said the 5-year-old in a slow, drawn-out voice that mimicked the Winnie the Pooh character. But Campbell didn't buy it. "Beep, beep, beep, beep," he said, as he lifted the pillow next to Eeyore and found Cuddlies.